Katherina
by Myley
Summary: She was Katherine Pierce, the sassy survivor. He called her Katerina, that girl she could no longer be. But Katherine, Katerina, it did not really matter. For a name was just that, a name. Or was it more to it? Kalijah, oneshot


**Hello there! Here is a quick Kalijah oneshot. It's half canon and roughly follows the seasons 4 and 5 of TVD. I hope you will enjoy it!**

**PAIRING: Katherine/Elijah**

* * *

_Name [noun], a word or set of words by which a person, animal, place, or thing is known, addressed, or referred to._

_Synonym = a designation._

* * *

She had not seen him for five hundred years. His face, previously worshiped, now haunted her nightmares. His voice still rang in her mind and sent chills down her spine. _"I can smell your blood,"_ she could still hear him say.

When she found enough courage to take the phone, she thought she had probably signed her death sentence. She was playing her last card.

"What is it that you want, _Katerina_?" his deep voice had growled in the phone, making her hand quiver and sweat over the receiver she was trying to keep firmly against her ear.

"I wondered if we could meet and talk. I have a proposition that might interest you," she dared reply.

She could feel his brow furrow upon hearing her confession, "Do you really want to negotiate with me? After all this time, _Katerina_," he chuckled, only as Elijah could chuckle, mid-amused, mid-threatening. The accent he used whenever pronouncing her birth name made her stir, as if a deadly incantation whose mere utterance held the power to strike her down.

"Please Elijah, I'm serious," she pleaded, her voice oddly unkatherine-like – then again, Elijah was a real man, something she was not used to dealing with.

He had remained silent for a while, pondering the pros and cons of her surprising cheekiness.

After a couple of minutes of an excruciating waiting, she heard him sigh, "Very well. Where shall we meet?"

Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to respond without showing her distress, "I'm in New York. There's this coffee shop, called 'The Parrot' in Manhattan..." she proposed, not totally efficient in keeping her voice steady. She was terrified and she knew he could feel it.

"I can be in New York tomorrow. Would five in the afternoon suit you?"

"Yes, it's perfect!" Gee, she would have agreed even if he had proposed three in the morning.

"Very well. I do hope for you that it is worth the trouble. If it's not, well..." he trailed off, letting her guess his intentions.

She gritted her teeth. She was playing with fire, "I'm not stupid. I wouldn't bother you if it wasn't."

"It would be most unfortunate for you, indeed. See you tomorrow then,_ Katerina_," he slurred her name before hanging up, sending the familiar vertigo of death right through her heart.

* * *

The encounter had been awkward, to say the least. The great Katherine Pierce had spent the whole afternoon prior to their meeting fidgeting nervously. She had come to doubt of her decision. What if Elijah did not find any interest in her offering? What if he decided she was wasting his time? If so, he would kill her or make sure she never escaped and there would be nothing to be done about it. She was standing on a thin line. It was her last chance.

When she caught a glimpse of his poised silhouette pushing the door open, she began to panic. She closed her eyes and tried to even her ragged breath. After all those centuries, the fear was still as vivid. She watched him pull up the chair across her and sit, his features frozen in dreadful coldness.

She swallowed the thick lump his eyes had formed in her throat, "Thank you for coming," she stuttered, her voice weak and quavering. She hated the way he made her feel, small and vulnerable, so opposite to the deadly vampire she had become.

"So, what is this mysterious proposition whose importance succeeded in getting you to find the nerve to call me," he joked only as Elijah could joke, mid-amused, mid-threatening – the threat actually quite palpable in each articulation of the words especially when he added, "You have two minutes to stir my curiosity. If past those two minutes, I find no appeal to whatever you have to say, you will wish my brother had not let you go."

She licked her lips which fear had dried. She knew he meant every word. If Niklaus was a monster, Elijah could be far worse. Had it been anyone else, she would have jested a little, thrown flirtatious remarks here and there, batted her eyelashes suggestively. But given the identity of her current negotiating partner, it would have been suicidally foolish of her to beat around the bush. Elijah was not the Salvatore brothers, neither Mason nor any of the cute boys she wrapped around her fingers in but a suave greeting. Elijah's eyes did not shine in awe of her beauty – not anymore. She was not the dominant asset of the game. Not this time.

"I don't know if you already know it, but there exists a cure for vampirism," she bluntly declared, fidgeting with her glass of scotch to show of her unhidden nervousness.

Elijah's eyebrows barely furrowed. His facial expression did not falter. He was unnervingly composed. Katherine inwardly scoffed in annoyance. She was not used to feeling so helpless.

"Is that so?" he asked, boredom lingering in the tones of his voice.

Wonderful! He did not sound interested in the least! Katherine could feel the executioner's axe dangerously lower against her frail neck.

"Yes. An ancient immortal named Silas was entombed two-thousands years ago along with a cure he never took. The cure is supposed to make any immortal a moral again."

A few seconds passed during which Elijah's burning gaze never left her.

"Have you seriously bothered me with the sole aim to tale-telling me?" he eventually asked, his growing anger resounding in his low voice, "I have heard of Silas. It's a legend."

Katherine felt sweat gather on her brow, "Apparently it's real enough for Elena Gilbert," she mumbled trying to stir his interest in mentioning her pious Doppelganger.

Elijah stared at her impassively, "I do not understand, Katherine, why am I here? Even if this cure does exist – which I doubt – do you truly think that I would like to be mortal again? Be careful, the two minutes are almost gone."

"Of course not! But Elena Gilbert and her friends are adamantly looking for it. And if they find a cure for immortality, the odds are they're gonna try to use it on you and your brother. No longer immortals, you'll be easy to kill."

Elijah's brow slightly curved, his bored expression tensed. Katherine felt her heart increase. Perhaps had she been successful in stirring his curiosity.

"Why are you telling me this? If what you say is true, then it is to your advantage."

"It could be if it had a chance to work. But contrary to my sweet Doppelganger, I'm not naive, Elijah. Klaus is smart, he will beat Elena to her own game. Helping them would only be counter-productive. I don't want to enrage your brother any more than I already have. To tell you the truth, I am tired of running. I want it to stop. I'm here to make a deal with you: I find the cure for you before Elena and efficiently abort all chance of Mystic Falls surprise attack on your Original selves in exchange for my freedom. What you do with the cure once I give it to you is not my problem."

Elijah's mouth curved into a smirk, "Are you saying that you want to _protect_ Niklaus and I?" he sounded way too amused, almost mocking.

"I could have directly dealt with your beloved brother but I'm not sure he would have taken the time to listen to me!"

"And what makes you think I will?! Why should I trust, _Katerina_?!"

Again with this damn accent! She clenched her teeth, "Because I stand humble before you. I could have let the Mystic Falls champions do their deed and either gloat over their dramatic failure or rejoice in you brother's demise. But I didn't. I chose to call you and face _your _decision for _my_ fate instead. I'm playing my last card, here. This is the only thing I have left to offer. If you don't want it, there's nothing I can do about it. You're here and I know you won't let me escape. Not this time."

"Are you that desperate?"

"As I said, the fun of the chase has run cold. I can't live like this anymore," she met his gaze, "So either team up with me or kill me. The choice is yours."

He uncrossed his legs and leaned slightly more in his chair without breaking their visual contact, "I must say that your weariness deeply surprises me. I had thought Katherine Pierce to be more tenacious."

She knew he was testing her. She would not give in, no matter how his nonchalance enraged her. He had been holding a grudge against her for five centuries only because she had not wanted to play sacrificial lamb! He was a top A jerk but she did not have anyone else to whom she could turn for help.

She did not add anything and waited for the befalling verdict. She jumped when a couple of minutes later, he stood from his chair and fixed his jacket. Where was he going?

"I'll think about it. I'll let you know of my decision. Have a nice evening, Katherine," he slightly bowed his head in her direction and left her there without a spare glance.

What a massive asshole!

* * *

She would not hear from him for the two following weeks. The waiting killed her. He was doing it on purpose and she knew it. The man had vengeance issues; for a thousand years-old adult, he did behave like a petulant child. She had lived those weeks in sheer paranoia, never knowing what to expect of the hour to come.

Eventually, when she thought the anxiety would starve her, her phone had rang and his name appeared on the screen. She felt every blood cell leave her face, her hands began to tremble violently and she almost let the apparel fall when she tried to pick up.

His voice had arisen, dark and ominous, "I have taken my decision,_ Katerina_," he paused for dramatic effect, making sweat perspire from every pore of her olive skin, "After many internal debates, I have decided to accept the terms of the deal. I will help you find this cure and then I'll give it to Niklaus. Whatever decision my brother takes on your account is no concern of mine. But if it happens to be a trap and this cure is either imaginary or a lure to weaken me, you will wish you were never born. Are we clear?"

Her lungs had stopped pumping oxygen as he disclosed his decision. He accepted! She could not believe her luck! He was giving her a chance at gaining his forgiveness, even though the threat was still hanging heavy above her head.

"Perfectly clear. Do you swear you'll grant me your pardon?"

"I do, if the cure is as real as you claim it to be. However I cannot speak on my brother's behalf."

"I know..."

"The cure better be real, Katherine," he warned.

She swallowed. She just hoped it was. She just hoped it was...

* * *

The first weeks of their quest went by in potent uneasiness. He was wary of her, she was afraid of him. They had not shared common space in centuries and the last time they did, the situation was quite different. Whenever in his presence, she would drown in her own fear, never uttering a word if not required to. She would not speak, breath or move for fear of setting his wrath back upon her. She could not recognize herself. He made her so shy, so silent. He was so intimidating that she had stopped finding him attractive altogether. She would even have let herself starve, if it had not been for Elijah's acknowledgment of their need to feed – on blood bags, Elijah did not attack random people in the streets and Katherine had to force herself not to.

It would take weeks before they start communicating with a different motive than just strategy points. It actually began with a scowling from Elijah as he witnessed Katherine attack a young girl to feed. She replied that she was a vampire. He told her she was being rude. She objected that he was being a hypocrite as he himself had often taken innocent lives to serve his numerous selfish purposes – starting with her own, but she kept that bit to herself. He had warned her to watch her tongue. She had stuck it out at him. It was their very first exchange, the very first time Katherine Pierce had awoken from her Katerina Petrova slumber.

Their second conversation was about her clothing style which he found vulgar. She replied equally, mocking his obsession with suits. He told her he favored elegance. She told him he just looked stuck-up.

Many conversations ensued after that. Conversations about their favorite epoch, he missed the sixteenth century and the sumptuousness of the Renaissance, she longed for a revival of the seventies. They argued about the lack of morality of the present time, he thought feminists were misled and hysterical, she thought he was an old chauvinistic bastard. As a matter of fact, they argued way more than they talked. They soon discovered that there seemed to be nothing on which they could agree. He found her rude, common, narcissistic and shallow, she found him old-fashion, boring, uptight and haughty. He mourned for the sweet peasant girl she had once been, she could not understand how she had once fallen for such a boor.

* * *

The quest in itself was not exactly fruitful. It required an extraordinary amount of spying and reading – Katherine would do the spying and Elijah, the reading. Many a time they almost grabbed each other by the throat; there were even moments Katherine thought she was done for. A part of her could not wait for this nightmare to be over, the other pinned for another sample of his unmatchable accent – _Katerina_.

She did not really know when things truly turned into something more than just polite – in the idea that both were still physically intact, she especially – cooperation. One day, they went to explore yet another obscure source in yet another remote town of the American continent. As usual, they had argued about petty things the three hours they had been forced to spend in each other's delightful company. Katherine was upset, so much that she actually failed to see the root which peeped through the ground. The younger vampire was about to send him packing for the umpteenth time when she trapped her foot in the root. As she braced herself for a very unkatherine-like fall, she felt a strong pair of arms catch her from behind. When she raised her head, she met stormy brown eyes she thought she would never see again.

* * *

After that, something changed. The air around them felt thicker, less breathable. Elijah's eyes shone differently whenever she caught them settle on her. There were the smirks, the tone of his voice – warmer - the way he let his hands brush against her whenever they were too close. They still argued half the time they were stuck together but Elijah responded differently. Although the harshness was still there, Katherine could feel something else, something that felt a lot like a wicked game of verbal dominance. After a couple of weeks of this, she was stunned to realize that he was actually _flirting_ with her. She realized that the more aggressive she got, the more he would provoke her, so much that she began to wonder if this man secretly was a masochist. He looked to get a lot of fun in making her fly off the handle. Had it been any other man, she would have happily played along. However, given that it was Elijah, the maniacal Original vampire, she had no idea as to how she was supposed to react. Her fear of him had not gone away. She had merely incorporated it. His little smiles and hungry eyes made her feel uncomfortable, a lot less like sassy Katherine Pierce and a lot more like the ignorant fifteen years-old Bulgarian girl who had let herself be impregnated by an idiot between a couple of trees just because she had had no idea of what happened when it did. The only thing she had been able to say at the time had been _ouch_ and it was already too late. Five centuries later, she still scoffed at her own stupidity.

Katherine felt pretty much like a fifteen years-old whenever she met Elijah's predatory gaze.

The first time they had found themselves on the verge of kissing, she lowered her head, feeling suddenly shy. He put his finger under her chin to force her confused eyes to meet his ravenous orbs.

"You are afraid of me," he stated.

She did not reply.

He chuckled, "And I have heard so much about Katherine Pierce's romantic eloquence."

She swallowed. He was saying the truth. She was _eloquent_. With the other men.

When he pressed his lips against hers, her heart went ballistic. Katherine's kisses were turbulent and devouring; they left you lost and dazzled. Katerina's were clumsy and hesitant; she never knew how to do anything, just as she did not know if she ever did it right.

Elijah never kissed Katherine.

Just like he never made love to her either. Five hundred years of _what ifs_ and when it finally happened for real, it did not feel like it was. Katerina was frail and submissive in his arms, she quivered easily. She was not playful, she was not bold. When Katherine would have been licentious and excessive, Katerina was uncertain and hardly took the lead. He made her body convulse and her brain explode. He made sheer anticipation course through her veins and apprehension flutter about her heart whenever his blood-red eyes and sharp fangs would invade her visual field. With him, she felt small and breakable, like the little girl she thought she had stopped being centuries ago.

* * *

The months they spent together were passionate and frightening. She never forgot who he was and what she risked if she ever did something he disapproved of. They argued less. She often found herself at a loss for words, especially when he eye-fucked her as only Elijah could eye-fuck someone.

It was bizarre and confusing. She did not really know if she liked it or not. But if someone had asked her if she wanted it to stop, she did not know which answer she would have gone with. She also knew that whatever they had now, it was weak and would probably not survive the end of a cooperative purpose; the quest was the one thing which held them together.

Therefore, when Katherine got her hand on the cure, she hid it. And when Elijah later inquired about it, she sighed and said she just hoped to find it soon before letting him kiss Katerina.

* * *

Everything plummeted when Elena Gilbert, the emotionless newbie, decided to stick her oar in and ruin it all.

When they found her in a restaurant, Katherine was still dormant and Katerina tried pitifully to defend herself, letting a bit of Katherine pour out, albeit not as efficiently. Elena tried to impersonate her. However, if emotional Elena would have made a terrible Katherine, emotionless Elena could never be Katerina. Elijah saw right through her but the deed was already done and Katherine jolted awake.

She tried to have Elijah accept the Katherine side of Katerina. When Katherine handed him the cure that night, she allowed a bit of the Petrova to merge within the Pierce. She laid herself bare at the feet of this man she had relearned to love and trust.

But it was not enough.

* * *

He had left her. He rejected Katherine, he abandoned Katerina. She had allowed herself to genuinely trust – something she had not done in centuries – and he had left her. Katerina cried a lot that night but Katherine vowed to make Elena pay.

In the end, Elena won. Katherine was defeated and she reincorporated Katerina's body.

* * *

When Elijah visited her, her hair was gray and her face wrinkled. She raised her glassy eyes to him. She remembered him. His face looked familiar.

"I know you," she said, her voice cracking with fatigue.

He swallowed, hard, "I'm Elijah," the Original whispered.

She smiled a bit, "Hello Elijah, I'm Katherina!" Elijah was too shocked to correct her – did she mean Katherine? Did she mean Katerina? Did she even know? Did he?

A woman walked pass him with a blanket she wrapped around the fallen Pierce' shoulders, "Here, it's cold," she said gently while cupping the old woman's face tenderly.

She turned to him, "Who are you?" she asked harshly with a thick accent.

"Elijah Mikealson," he replied carefully, "Who are _you?_"

She stared at him insolently, "Nadia Petrova. What do you want with my mother?" she asked putting a protective arm around her _mother_.

The Original's face froze in utter shock. He saw Kat(h)erina grab the young woman's hand, "She's my little girl," she told him with a smile, proud. Nadia turned to her mother and smiled at her while passing a hand through her hair.

He lifted his gaze up to Nadia who was staring at him with hatred and disgust, "You're the Original? Rebekah's brother?"

Rebekah knew Kat(h)eria's daughter? He could not find his words. How could she have a daughter? And a grown-up vampire daughter at that! He had only been gone for seven months!

"Don't you think you've hurt her enough as it is? First you chase her for five centuries just because she did not want to die and then you abandon her again. Go away."

The Original would have snapped this impudent's neck, had he not been too stupefied to react. Given the tremendous amount of surrealism of the situation, he robotically nodded and left the room, his ears buzzing and his heart so clenched in his chest he thought he might throw it up. Just on his way out, he heard Katherine – Katerina – whatever – mumble incoherently to her _daughter_.

"It's alright, mother," Nadia said, "You're safe. I'll protect you."

"My little girl," he heard the old woman's croaked voice whisper fondly.

* * *

He went back to New Orleans in a complete blur. When he learned that Rebekah had slept with Katherina's daughter, he thought the world had gone raving mad and almost begged Niklaus to dagger him. One thing was certain though, Rebekah would never thank Elijah enough for having been between herself and the cure!

Meanwhile, Hayley gave birth to a baby girl and although he promised Niklaus that she would not call him father, he felt his resolution waver whenever Hayley's breath dampened his neck.

* * *

The tomb was sober. It only read a name, _Katerina Petrova_. There was no date of birth, no date of death. It was as if she had never truly existed, as if Katherine Pierce had never been real. Elijah tried to reprieve the tears which gathered in his eyes as he laid down a rose near the stele. _Katerina Petrova_. He heard footsteps.

"What are you doing here?" a voice said.

He turned to face Caroline, a huge bouquet of fresh flowers in her arms. He quirked an eyebrow and sent her a questioning look.

"The tomb is empty. It makes me sad okay," she said as she began to display the flowers all around the stone.

"Wasn't she your murderer?" he asked, confused.

"She was."

"And yet, here you are, decorating her tombstone with flowers."

Caroline sighed and turned her face to him, "Look, Katherine was a bitch but I can't help feeling sorry for her, " she went back to her floral arrangements, "I mean, her life was kinda sad. She was exiled by her family, had her baby girl snatched away from her arms, lunatics tried to sacrifice her like some Virgin - no offense - she killed herself in order to survive, then she discovered that her whole family had been slaughtered by the lunatic who wanted to juju her in the first place - no offense - and then she was on the run for five centuries! No wonder she became evil! And just when she meets her daughter, it's too late and they have to say goodbye," she sighed, "She did terrible things but she didn't really deserve to finish like that, like an old lady unable to even remember her own name, not after all those centuries of struggle to stay alive – it kinda ruined the whole thing. She didn't even have time to appreciate her second chance... It was super sad to watch her falter away so quickly."

The Original's resentment toward Katerina's betrayal still felt perfectly legitimate, but deep down, Elijah knew that maybe – maybe – the Original had overacted.

"Where is uhm... Nadia?"

"I don't know. She tried everything she could to save her mother, but the side effects of this stupid cure were just too thick!" the baby vamp shook her head in dejection while displaying a few flowers before her, around Elijah's, "She left after Katherine's death. She wanted to bury her in Bulgaria but Stefan said that Katherine had spent a great amount of time in Mystic Falls, so we buried her here. Besides, we didn't even know if she still felt Bulgarian. She wasn't exactly sentimental."

The baby vamp and the Original did not say anything else. They just stayed there, Caroline displaying her flowers, Elijah staring at the name, his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans. In another time, if they ever met again, he promised to have the Original tell her, "I'm sorry."

* * *

**I hope you liked it. I've wanted to write something about Katherine for a while now. I mean, she's the tragic character of the show, her fate makes me so sad. And although I like Elijah, he really was a jerk with her, especially with the whole Hayley thing (so forgive my sighlt Elijah bash in this, but he saw it coming!) I like how Caroline is not holding a grudge against her in season 5. She's really a good person.**


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